The Capitol Hill Report

Senator Begich’s Lies Exposed!

Recently, Gun Owners of America alerted our Alaskan activists that their Senator, Mark Begich (D), was working behind the scenes to ensure that the overwhelming majority of Alaska’s citizens would not benefit from the reciprocity bill being considered by Congress.

After we alerted them to this, Senator Begich responded to our alerts by saying, “The information you received about my position on this bill is completely false.”

Well, guess what?

Senator Begich has just introduced his own reciprocity bill, S. 2188, and it confirms everything we had been warning about!

Plus, it shows that Senator Begich was lying to his constituents, hoping that they would never investigate the veracity of his claims.

But here are the facts: Subsection (c)(2)(B) of Begich’s bill requires that anyone benefiting from carry reciprocity possess “a valid license or permit that ... permits the individual to carry a concealed firearm.”

In other words, the Begich bill will NOT protect Alaska non-permit holders -- who are the MAJORITY of Alaska’s law-abiding citizens.

In fact, the central difference between the Begich bill and the soon-to-be-introduced Thune-Vitter bill -- which Begich was trying to sabotage -- is this:

Law-abiding citizens in “Alaska Carry States” who refuse to jump through government hoops to get a permit would NOT be able to carry nationwide under the Begich bill, but they would be able to under the Thune-Vitter bill.

This is true, notwithstanding the fact that language which would protect BOTH PERMIT-HOLDERS AND NON-PERMIT HOLDERS got 58 votes in the Senate two years ago. And because of the 2010 elections, the Thune-Vitter language now currently has at least 62 Senate votes -- a supermajority -- in favor of it.